“What in God’s name?” I whispered.
What on Earth could have caused such damage to his back?
I pushed that question aside, dropped the fabric in my hand and slapped the back of Kane’s head. “Get the hell off me broth—” I was cut off when Kane lifted his arm and tried to swing it at James, but the angle of his swing caused it to rear back into my face and it knocked me backwards onto the ground.
“That’s ENOUGH!”
I cowered on the ground for only a moment, before I pushed myself up to my feet and looked at my father who walked out of his house with a steel baseball bat in his hands. He walked directly over to James and Kane—James had the upper hand and was on Kane now—and he grabbed my brother by the scruff of the neck and pulled him off Kane with one tug.
James flew backwards onto the ground, and Kane was quick to try and follow, but my father pointed the bat at Kane’s face and got his attention. Kane shook his head and blinked his eyes and after a moment he lifted his hands. “I’m done.”
“Too fuckin’ right you’re done,” my father snarled and moved past him and smacked Alec in the back of the head and pushed him off my little brother with his foot.
Gavin was bloody all over, Alec had a cut or two on his face showing my baby brother at least got some hits in on the big lad. Next up were Dante and Ryder—Dante and Harley obviously switched brothers—who were locked into a war of punches. It was hard to say who was beating up whom because both of them were messed up. It took a lot more effort to break up Harley and Nico, but eventually my father got the upper hand.
When he got everyone separated, he pointed to the cars across the road. “You four, get in your cars and leave. Do not come back here.”
After my father’s dismissal, he turned to me. “Are you okay?” he asked me, his tone soft.
I held my face with both hands but nodded my head.
Kane looked at me then. “Wh-what?”
“You back-handed her you son of a bitch,” my father snarled over his shoulder. “Now leave before I put this bat to good use.”
Kane stumbled a little, the skin on his face that wasn’t cut or swollen, visibly paled. “Oh, Christ. Aideen, I would never—I’m so sorry, babydoll.”
I turned from him. “Leave, Kane.”
“But the baby—”
“Will still be in me stomach for another few months. For today, just leave. I can’t even look at you.”
Kane didn’t move. “He hit me first.”
I dropped my hand from my throbbing cheek and looked at him. “Me students come at me with excuses like that and don’t get away with them so don’t you dare think you will either.”
Ryder intervened, “Kane wanted to talk it out, Aideen. Your brother was hell bent on fighting—not Kane.”
I looked at Ryder. “Did you stop for a second from hittin’ me other brother to look at Kane? I screamed at him and hit him to try to stop him but he blanked me out. He was like an animal, and if me da didn’t stop it, he would have killed me brother.”
James grunted against my argument. I wasn’t thinking about his pride for the moment, I was thinking about his safety, and the safety of my other brothers.
“I’m sorry,” Kane said to me, not to my brother.
I shook my head. “I don’t want to hear it. I want you to leave.”
Again, he stood firm.
“If she has to ask you again, boy, I’ll make you sorry,” my father growled.
Ryder stepped into the garden, glaring at Harley, who followed him.
“Bro,” he said to Kane, his tone softened, “let’s go.”
“I can’t leave her,” Kane said to Ryder without looking away from me.
I pressed my hand back to my cheek. “Just go home, Kane.”
I turned and walked into my father’s house ignoring Kane calling my name, and my brothers shouting for them to leave. I walked up the stairs to the bathroom and closed the door behind me, turning the lock to make sure no one could come in without my say so.
I rolled my eyes as I put the toilet seat down and sat on it—I never could get my father and Gavin to break the habit of leaving the seat up after my other three brothers moved out. I leaned forward, placed my face in my hands, and sighed. I rubbed my eyes but winced when a pulsing pain in my cheek demanded attention.
“Damn it,” I mumbled to myself and stood up.
I turned and took two steps towards the sink. I turned on the taps and washed my shaking hands. It took a few seconds of inner pep talk and deep breaths in order for me to look up, but when I did, I wished I hadn’t.
“Oh, no,” I grumbled.
My eye wasn’t swollen, but my cheekbone was. It was already bruised as well, a light electric blue spread out over my upper cheek. I thought back to nearly two years ago in Playhouse Nightclub when I last had a bruised face. That was Kane’s fault too, or was it Alec’s? Whatever, it was one of the brother’s fault. A lay of theirs got pissed and hit me because she thought I was trying to take her face down arse up position.